You hammered New Zealand the first time you played them in the men's T20 World Cup. So why wouldn't you do so again in the semifinal at Eden Gardens on Wednesday?

The question was designed to raise a smile from Aiden Markram, and it did: "Yeah, I wish cricket was that easy. New Zealand are a quality team. They've proved that over many years.

"We had a good run out against them in the group stages, but both teams have played a lot of cricket since then."

South Africa and New Zealand first met in Ahmedabad on February 14. Despite the date, Markram's men showed their opponents no love. They limited the Kiwis to 175/7 and reeled that in with seven wickets standing and 17 balls to spare.

"The Ahmedabad surface was good for South Africa," Mitchell Santner said. "They have a lot of power, and the Powerplay for us with the ball was where they got away."

New Zealand were 58/3 after six overs with Marco Jansen doing all the damage. At the same stage of their reply, South Africa were 83/1 with Markram well on his way to an unbeaten 86 off 44.

But Santner also didn't believe recent history would repeat itself: "We probably haven't played the perfect game throughout this tournament, and I guess that's a good thing for us. If we can put it all together it would put us in a pretty good position."

Coming in the wake of the double super over scramble to beat Afghanistan at the same ground three days previously, the South Africans' recovery to apparently pulseless, solid cricket against New Zealand was impressive. They have since reeled off four more wins, including over India and West Indies, and have reached the final four as the only unbeaten team among the 20 who started the tournament.

The New Zealanders rose from the canvas to beat Canada and Sri Lanka and endure a washout against Pakistan, but also lost to England. Small wonder South Africa are heavily favoured to win on Wednesday.

"It's a completely fresh start tomorrow, and it's a semifinal," Markram said. "I don't think it's as straightforward as just being able to repeat [the February 14 match]. There are a lot of variables in this game but all the boys are very excited for the opportunity. We'll try to bring our best game to the front again."

Markram is, of course, correct on all counts. Neither side have played at Eden Gardens during the tournament. Indeed, South Africa have never been in Kolkata for a T20I. New Zealand have, twice. And while the South Africans have won all five of their T20 World Cup games against New Zealand, they lost both of their ODI World Cup knockout matches against them.

Even so, in this competition, the helter-skelter game against Afghanistan aside, South Africa haven't looked like losing. How had they managed to be so seamlessly successful?

"It's about making really good decisions under pressure," Markram said. "We've got a lot of good experience in the group. [Quinton de Kock] reads conditions really well from behind the stumps and that makes a massive difference for us. We get that from around the group, and the guys come up with plans from there. Ultimately you need to execute those plans.

"We don't try to complicate it too much. We just try to get a feel for conditions as quickly as we can and we back the plans for the innings. Afterwards you reflect and learn lessons, whether it goes well or not. But at least there's a clear direction in which we're trying to move."

Still, uncertainty is baked into this kind of cricket, as Markram acknowledged: "Any team can beat anyone at a World Cup, especially in this format. It takes one or two special performances and that can be the game."

Santner was less expectant of surprises: "There's no secrets about what South Africa are going to bring. We know they're going to probably roll out the same team, and a very good team at that. And they probably know what we're going to do. But they have all the bases covered and that's why they're undefeated in this tournament."

There's a double-edged truth to that. Markram is right about matches turning on a dime in the T20 game. Santner is spot one when he says the teams cannot hide their intentions from each other. The magic is in the fact that, despite all that being the case, we still don't know who will turn the match which way on Wednesday. That one team hammered the other last time out counts for nothing.